Sneaked Versus Snuck

What is the proper past tense form of the verb "to sneak"?

Category:

Education

Tags:

• grammar
• girl
• grammargirl
• sneak
• sneaked
• snuck
• English

[InvaderDeviLin]

@mkolstee firstly, i never claimed to be an authority. ;) secondly, the internet is a very casual place, especially on youtube. improper punctuation and capitalization, as well as excessive abbreviation, are widely accepted (and generally expected lol) in such a casual environment. however, unintentionally using incorrect words, regardless of environment, is unacceptable to me, personally. finally, the "*shudders*" was regarding ending sentences with prepositions, not the usage of "snuck". :)

[mkolstee]

@InvaderDeviLin You are telling us what is correct and you *shudder* at the thought of someone using "snuck", but you don't start EVEN ONE sentence with a capital letter. You are SOME authority...

[bradleythekid]

Darn iPad auto correct... There are several typos in that last post.

[bradleythekid]

Old English vs New English vs American English vs British English... Was is "proper" is what is accepted where you are writing. It the US it is proper to use the word "snuck" and in a lot of Americans' opinions, snuck sounds better than sneaked. Humans invented English and it is constantly evolving.

[theshark2005]

TOTALY agree with you !

[n0si11A]

I read somewhere that if you treat it as an irregular verb, you can use "snuck".

[kght222]

i know, i'm an american, so my ideas on this might be biased, probably are, but sneaked just doesn't seem to flow right off the tongue. when i read it its not a big deal other than that twinge in my head that's voicing it that says that's awkward as hell to say. and that is my point, i cant even imagining that word being comfortable in a sentence if the queen, or any other british individual said it. but i must admit it is probably just culture.

[alfajorNYC]

Snuck has occasionally been considered nonstandard, but it is so widely used by professional writers and educated speakers that it can no longer be so regarded. From its earliest appearance in print in the late 19th century as a dialectal and probably uneducated form, the past and past participle snuck has risen to the status of standard and to approximate equality with sneaked. It is most common in the United States and Canada but has also been spotted in British and Australian English.

[dondude69]

They both sound stupid for some reason.

[InvaderDeviLin]

@rendallren lol no, she's 100% correct. snuck is a part of american dialect and is not proper. english grammar is *certainly* prescriptive. however, it has become accepted common practice to use poor grammar, such as ending sentences with prepositions. *shudders* while "snuck" has become commonly accepted as an approximately equal alternative to "sneaked", it still possesses uneducated dialectal roots.